Navy alerted about suspicious ship sailing towards Goa

The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard have intensified their patrolling off Konkan coast following intelligence inputs that a suspicious ship was heading towards Goa.

Goa police received the intelligence inputs on Thursday night from their counterparts in Sindhudurg (Maharashtra) which alerted them about a "suspiciously moving ship."

"We were informed by Goa police about such movement of the ship. But we are still verifying the reports," Captain Manohar Nambiar, public relation officer, Indian Navy, told PTI on Friday.

The Sindhudurg police had based their inputs on the information provided by the fishermen. There were no specific details about the vessel. The information did not even mention whether it was a large ship or small trawler-like vessel, a senior police official said.

"The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard launched search mission immediately after the inputs were conveyed to them but till now we have not received any feedback. That means the vessel was not traced or inputs were improper," Atmaram Deshpande, Superintendent of Police (Special Branch), said.

Goa police said that according to the inputs, the boat was supposed to touch the state's coast on Friday morning. "These days there is hardly any ship movement in the sea due to rough weather. So, if there is any vessel, it is not difficult to locate it," Deshpande said.

Goa police said that they have alerted the coastal police stations which will increase vigilance along the beach belt as they don't want to leave anything to chance.

Post-Mumbai terror attacks the possibility of a strike from sea was feared by intelligence agencies which had even said that Lashkar-e-Tayiba's 'sea wing' is likely to hit the western coast. Goa, along with Maharashtra and Karnataka, is on alert on account of the Independence Day celebrations.